paper

An X-ray spectral study of 24 type-1 AGN

arXiv:astro-ph/9610127 · doi:10.1093/mnras/286.3.513

Abstract

I present a study of the X-ray spectral properties of a sample containing 24 type-1 active galactic nuclei using the medium spectral resolution of ``ASCA''. The sample consists of 20 radio-quiet objects and 4 radio-loud objects. A simple power-law continuum absorbed by Galactic material provides a very poor description of the spectra of most objects. Deviations from the power-law form are interpreted in terms of X-ray reprocessing/absorption processes. In particular, at least half of the objects show K-shell absorption edges of warm oxygen (O vii and O viii) characteristic of optically-thin, photoionized material along the line-of-sight to the central engine, the so-called warm absorber. It is found that objects with significant optical reddening display deep O vii edges. Coupled with other evidence, this suggests the existence of dusty warm plasma. A radiatively driven outflow originating from the molecular torus is probably the source of this plasma. Rapid variability of the warm absorber also points to there being another component closer to the central source and probably situated within the broad line region. Spectral features at energies characteristic of cold fluorescent iron K emission are common. Radio-quiet objects have iron emission well described as originating from either the inner regions of an accretion disk or, in a small number of cases, from the molecular torus. Two of the radio-loud objects (3C~120 and 3C~382) have a much broader feature which presents problems for the relativistic disk model. The presence of radio-jets may be important in forming this spectral feature.

27 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Cited by in corpus (429)